@CronoM  
If anyone, fan or official, decides to write that story about Celestia and Sunset Shimmer, I hope they decide to call it “Wayward Sun”.

@CronoM  
This is a good point, and certainly if I were to guess, I would have suspected that Sunset’s family was not as affectionate as Twilight’s apparently was.
 
Perhaps I’m being paranoid, because the last thing I want to see is a further increasing separation between Sunset and her pony roots. Her position as an otherworldly outsider is one of the things that makes this whole setup interesting to me after all, so I’d rather not see her eventually acting as if she has no connections to her place of origin. This comic seems geared up to tell a friendship story, but not a whole lot about Sunset, necessarily. But, perhaps I’ll be surprised.

@Millennial Dan  
At the very least, she is actually talking about her parents, and what they are or are not to her. To Twilight, their role means nothing, they were general super-supportive parents and Celestia became a bigger role model to her then they ever were. With Sunset actually having something happen to her, going into an alternate world, and them not being part of the equation…it definitely sets off a vibe of rather distant parents.
 
And the thing is, that fits with her story and her personality perfectly. You don’t expect a person like Sunset to come from happy childhoods. I normally don’t like parent cop-outs either; unless it fits.
 
This shifts the focus rightfully back on Celestia, whom Sunset is emotionally and thematically her wayward daughter in every respect. The really great scene where she rights “Dear Princess Celestia…” showed that she had a really strong bond with Celestia that wasn’t just mere mental dependency. One thing Celestia realized after she and Sunset lost COMPLETE control of their tempers in their last argument was that she had grown more emotionally attached to Sunset then ANYONE since Luna. I really hope they build on the mother-daughter bond they share.

I wonder what’s Heart Warming’s Eve’s equivalent in the human world.  
:D

@Masem  
That’s the thing. Even if her relationship to her parents became estranged, it couldn’t have started out that way. Sunset, like Twilight, was probably enrolled at an early age in Celestia’s school. It’s a pretty important part of her past, with all kinds of implications, but writing it off by saying “they weren’t close” gives them the ability to say no more about the matter. Were Sunset’s parents distant? Did they have high expectations? Were they kind, but unsure how to raise their filly?
 
The way this comic is set up, it sounds like the MLP tradition of avoiding parental questions will continue. No shots of Sunset being homesick or wondering where her family is now and what they’re doing, no flashbacks of Hearth’s Warming with Celestia, nothing. I hope I’m wrong.

@Millennial Dan  
I’m not so sure if it’s lazy. She and Twilight - when Celestia’s students - were both very independent and nose-deep in their studies, but while Twilight had a strong family connection to Shiny, I’d read between the lines that Sunset was an only child, and someone that independent may not have as strong a connection to their parents (eg: see Rarity).
 
I hope we get a bit more bg on Sunset’s pony past from this, the story is prime for a few more hints.

Oh, so it’s going to take the lazy way out and say that Sunset and her family “weren’t close”. Figures.

Dem feels.

@Background Pony #00EA  
His first few pony comics are … not great (FS Micro). But he’s gotten better.
 
His only major fault nowadays is not having a wide variance in facial expressions, making some panels look weird. Compare this to the RD/Spitfire issue from Jay Fosgitt, who, while might draw the ponies with odd proportions, has a mastery of facial expressions.

This is gonna be so much better than the first one :D

How old is Sunset Shimmer anyway?
 
Celestia’s academy seems to never end as well.

@FSin  
Yes.
 
That’s exactly what happened.
 
Where have you been?

Could be much like Twilight and she got accepted to the school for gifted unicorns, and eventually became a personal student to Celestia

@Background Pony #6E5A
 
@PonyPon
 
Well, even if she IS an orphan she still might have other family. Just like Apple Family - AJ has no parents, but she has her siblings, Granny Smith and plenty of cousins.

@PonyPon  
drama bomb potential is enormous. celestia having to deal with sunset’s parents as to where their daughter is would be heartbreaking

@Background Pony #6E5A  
Apparently not.

@PonyPon
 
Wait, Sunset had family back in Equestria?! She wasn’t an orphan?

I have heard that Tony Fleecs have “I can’t fucking draw” nickname. How come? It doesn’t look bad.

Aw, even her family?